Smart TV platform provider Roku has set a cat among the pigeons with a world-first in the shape of Fairground AI, a new, free-to-watch TV channel that shows nothing but AI-generated content 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Fairground AI is just one of four new channels added to The Roku Channel, which is the streaming platform’s dedicated library of free TV channels. The others include Mad TV, Retro Black Laughs and Whose Line Is It Anyway. The latter shows reruns of the legendary U.K. improvised comedy show that was a massive hit back in the 1980s and 90s on Channel 4. However, there’s a good chance Fairground AI may end up getting more laughs, but it’ll mostly be viewers howling with derision at the quality of the AI slop whipped up by creators.
Futurism was the first to report on this development, noting that what Roku is giving us is really just an “unending conveyor belt of AI slop.”
Fairground Entertainment, the company behind the channel, chose different words, saying that the launch is a “landmark moment” for the distribution of “AI cinema,” and a “ new form of storytelling.”
Its Chief Executive Colin Petrie-Norris insisted that the launch is a “groundbreaking moment for AI cinema.”
On the other hand, The Verge insisted that it’s like “eating from a trough.”
Clearly, given the divisive nature of AI technology, which has an enormous amount of haters but also a considerable number of fans, opinions on the new channel are going to differ. Proponents of AI and those who love experimenting with it appear to be extremely excited about Fairground AI, because one of its main selling points appears to be that it’s open for every creator. It’s encouraging creators to upload their own generative AI videos, and says its editors will look over them and feature those that they’re most impressed by on the channel. For any creator who’s lucky enough to get their content broadcast, Fairground AI says it will pay them for it.
Others are much more cynical. “Finally, AI can unleash the creative potential of people who can't write, don't understand pacing or transitions, are unfamiliar with human facial expressions, etc,” said @i_slamson in a post on X.
“That new Fairground AI channel on Roku is so bad, it makes North Korean propaganda shows look good,” responded PSYMAGE. “It’s kind of a must watch for a little while, if only to see the cutting edge of AI slop.”
Futurism was equally critical of the new channel: "It broadcasts AI-generated abominations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The only interruption to this slop flow state are intermittent ads — which are also AI-generated. It sounds more like a concept for a sci-fi torture device than it does a source of genuine entertainment, but it is, unfortunately, real."
The more enthusiastic “AI creators," if that’s the correct label for them, have been sharing plenty of the more interesting videos they’ve seen on Fairground AI via X, but those posts have drawn much more criticism than praise. If you’ve had the privilege of watching AI-generated videos before, you’ll probably be aware that they share certain traits – such as poor dialogue, incoherent edits, strange artefacts appearing and so on. They just look wonky as hell, seems to be the consensus.
By popularising AI-generated video, Fairground AI could be taking on more considerable risk besides just attracting haters. Recently, the AI music platform Suno lost a class action lawsuit brought against it by more than 1,800 musicians. A court in Germany found that it had violated the musicians’ copyrights, and ordered the company to pay an amount in damages that has not yet been determined.
Should Fairground AI’s concept pay off, it may not be long until we see it embroiled in a similar lawsuit once filmmakers start seeing content that looks suspiciously similar to their own.
